Lifestyle Diseases and Reduce Productivity

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Background to Lifestyle diseases and obesity in US
Organizational design to overcome lifestyle diseases and obesity
Organization chart
Leadership
Strategic planning
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

The health and lifestyle of the people in the US closely relate to the well-being of the nation. The consequences of lifestyle have a major impact upon individual performance and productivity. It was seen that $117 billion is costing for unhealthy eating and physical inactivity in a year in the United States. During 2005, the cost of physical inactivity, obesity and overweight in California was about $28 billion. This mainly affects the productivity of the people and thus causes costs to the employers. Moreover, it worsens the health care environment of the whole world. Journal of Occupation, Environment and Medicine, 1998 has published that overweight and obesity have become critical issues in organizations as they link with productivity at work. Research conducted by the University of Michigan’s Health Management Research Centre has identified eight factors, which lead individuals to lifestyle diseases and reduce productivity. Uncontrolled obesity, lack of physical activity, stress, poor perception of one’s health, smoking, blood pressure, depression, and life and job dissatisfaction are the eight factors that were referred to as eight deadly sins. (For companies, 2009). Several seminars are conducted on health issues of employees and one of the recent seminars has addressed the impact of today’s lifestyle on tomorrow’s workforce. The seminar focused on the issues like obesity, diabetes and alcohol consumption of the employees and the economy. (Lifestyle Diseases and Employee Health, 2005). As compared to the advertisement cost amounting to $12 million in a year of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, about $650 million are spent by some of the fast-food companies. Health and lifestyle issues are becoming more and more important in the US and we can see it in detail.

Background to Lifestyle diseases and obesity in US

Lifestyle diseases: When countries become more industrialized, there is an increase in lifestyle diseases also. Lifestyle diseases take years to develop due to the reduction in physical exercise, increased usage of alcohol and smoke and by the way of our life. They are preventable for a long time or could be lowered by changing the lifestyle or by dieting, differentiating it from other diseases. Inappropriate relationship with the environment by the people is the main cause of lifestyle diseases. Even though we say about lifestyle diseases, there is confusion about whether there exist lifestyle diseases. The international variation in cancer rates and the United States death statistics give proof that lifestyle diseases exist. A recent research about the variations in cancer rates got an insight into lifestyle diseases and their existence. It is pointed out that increase in the consumption of meat, alcohols, beverages, fruit juices, rice, maize, meat etc have changed the people’s dieting in most of the western countries. The lifestyle change resulted in large reductions in physical activity and lead to obesity. “It was noted that in the 1970s people in many western countries had diets, high in animal products, fat, and sugar, and high rates of cancers of the colorectal, breast, prostate, endometrial, and lung”. It was seen that individual in developing countries diet by taking low staple and fatty foods thus reducing the cancer rates. “These observations suggest that the diets [or lifestyle] of different populations might partly determine their rates of cancer. This basis for this hypothesis was strengthened by results of studies showing that people who migrate from one country to another generally acquire the cancer rates of the new host country, suggesting that environmental [or lifestyle factors] rather than genetic factors are the key determinants of the international variation in cancer rates.” (Lifestyle diseases, 2009). Various interesting facts were revealed by the United States death statistics about lifestyle diseases. During 1900s, communicable diseases like pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhea were the main causes of death. At that time, other diseases were about 60 percent. However, by the 1990s lifestyle diseases became 60 percent of all deaths. Statistics of the World Health Organization show that in the coming years more than 270 million people will be suspected of the lifestyle diseases mainly in China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia. (Overweight and obesity, 2007). Due to the economic boom, which resulted in high IT or IETS, jobs have a huge impact on the changing lifestyle of people. Estimation by World Health Organization shows that about 20 million people die annually because of heart diseases and diabetes. By 2015, death due to lifestyle will be doubling. Top lifestyle diseases pointed out are as follows: Alzheimer’s disease, Arteriosclerosis, Cancer, Diabetes, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Heart disease, Chronic Liver Disease/Cirrhosis, Nephritis, and stroke.

Obesity: A major health concern among adults, children and adolescents in United States is increasing day by day. Survey by NHANES shows an increase in obesity rate among adult men to 33.3% during 2005-2006. It was 31.1% during 2003-2004. (Overweight and obesity, (n.d)). When there is an increase in the weight of a person above the normal condition, we can say that he is overweight and obese. There is a slight difference between overweight and obesity. If the Body Mass Index of a person lies, between 25 and 29.9 he is considered overweight. When it is more than 30, he is supposed to be in obese condition.

Obesity and economic consequences: Obesity and overweight have a chronic effect upon U.S. health care system. It is pointed out that medical costs associated with obesity and overweight included both direct and indirect costs. One of the studies showed that the medical expenses have increased to $78.5 billion. “State-level estimates range from $87 million (Wyoming) to $7.7 billion (California). Obesity-attributable Medicare estimates range from $15 million (Wyoming) to $1.7 billion (California), and obesity-attributable Medicaid expenditures range from $23 million (Wyoming) to $3.5 billion (New York). The state differences in obesity-attributable expenditures are partly driven by the differences in the size of each state’s population.” (Overweight and obesity, (n.d)). Statistics about the lifestyle compliance and obesity shows the following:

During 1997–2001, about 438,000 Americans died each year due to smoking
“Americans eat about 34 percent of their calories as fat, increasing their risk of developing high cholesterol.
About 145 million American adults aged 20 and above are considered overweight or obese, and of these, more than 74.1 million are considered obese.
High blood pressure (hypertension) was the underlying cause of death for 57,356 Americans in 2005 and a primary or contributing cause of about 319,000 deaths.” (Statistics you need to know, 2009).
Lower education and income levels among people also cause higher blood pressure
“300,000 deaths each year in the United States are associated with obesity
The economic cost of obesity in the United States was about $117 billion in 2000.” (Overweight and obesity: At a glance, 2007).

Organizational design to overcome lifestyle diseases and obesity

Carefully considered, evidence-based, health service policy-making, management and organization are necessary for the effective health practice in the economy. “Whilst organization and management cannot be a substitute for clinical skill or experience, appropriate, evidence-based organization and management provide the essential infrastructure and context for effective clinical practice. Poor or inappropriate organization or management will make the clinical contribution less effective.” (Hands, 2000, p.14).

The organization should be designed in order to improve the health conditions of the employees and cure lifestyle diseases and obesity. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, National Association of County & City Health Officials, Department of Non-communicable Disease Prevention and Health Promotion etc. are some of the organizations working for maintaining local public health.

Lifestyle disease and Obesity Control Center (LOCC): We can establish a new organization Lifestyle disease and Obesity Control Center (LOCC) for taking action against lifestyle diseases and obesity among people.

Aim: The main aim of this organization is to assist Americans in balancing their healthful eating to reduce the health problems associated with lifestyle and obesity.

Responsibilities: The main responsibilities of organization include detecting and investigating the health problems mainly lifestyle diseases and obesity, conducting research, implementing prevention strategies, provide leadership and training to other organizations.

Organizational structure and design: The organization structure is designed by incorporating important aspects of other similar organizations. The LOCC contains the following departments: research and development department for understanding the behavioral and environmental causes of diseases and for evaluating the treatment alternatives, public health survey department for conducting the regular public survey and checkups, marketing department for communicating the importance of the nutrition and exercise, finance department for funding the activities of the organization, operations department for conducting day to day operations, human resource department for managing the human resource of the organization, workforce development, program control department for arranging different programs in schools, organizations, community and information system department. Each department is headed by the department head and all the departments are under the control of the director of the organization. Under each department, required staff is appointed to perform the duties.

Organization chart

Figure 1. Organization chart

Leadership

Even though there exist health organizations, the health issues are increasing. We can guess that they lack proper leadership while coordinating the activities. Therefore, an effective leadership is required for the success of the organization even though there are adequate resources. The staff of the organization should be directed and made expertise in areas like program coordination, strategic planning, conducting health education and awareness programs about nutrition and physical activity, surveys for data collection and analysis. Proper leadership is required for the following aspects: Active participation of the public in developing and implementing health information infrastructure, sufficient funding for the activities and for strategy implementation, communicating the aim of the organization in controlling obesity and improving the health of the public, proper delegation among the staffs to work effectively and to achieve the aim of the organization in the team, to identify the relationship between the political, social and environmental factors upon the lifestyle diseases and obesity, to develop and maintain a sound financial base for funding the implementation of the strategic plan, to develop as a single standard of high-quality healthcare. Also proper leadership is required to perform activities like:

Fitness classes in the organizations: the organization should conduct fitness classes in which employees and people in the community should participate in discussing the health issues regularly.
Monthly or weekly check-up or health surveys: the organization should conduct the following checkups as they benefit the organization more as stated earlier. Blood Pressure measurements, cholesterol measurement, obesity – measuring height and weight using Body Mass Index, smoking status, exercise habits, diabetic conditions, heart diseases, stress conditions etc.
Stress reduction programs: stress management classes help to reduce the absenteeism rates and increase productivity. Overstress leads to high blood pressure, heart diseases, stroke, ulcers etc, like lifestyle diseases. One of the studies about introducing stress management programs in the organizations reveals that there was a 50 percent reduction in the medical services. Some of the tactics, which could be adopted by the organization are conducting yoga and meditation classes, stress management classes including counseling.
Provide workforce assistance to other organizations regarding the importance of workforce nutrition and physical activity. What makes Americans differ from other nations is that they spend more hours at work without giving importance to dieting and physical activity, thus making obesity a far curable disease. “Without access to fruits and vegetables on the job, a working adult would have to eat 1 to 2 cups of fruits or vegetables every waking hour after work in order to meet the recommended ½ to 6½ cups daily.” (Workplace nutrition and physical activity, 2005, p.2). Help people to connect with nutrition assistance programs like food stamps and school meals for the working people. Educate employers about the importance of on-site and off-site physical activities. Workplace health promotion helps to improve the physical and mental performance of the employees thus protecting them from their diseases.

“Persuasion is one important aspect of public health practice leadership: creating a public health mandate to address a problem, convincing people that the issues and problems are of importance, generating action to address those problems, and then institutionalizing the solutions to advance enduring social change. One aspect of leadership is communication with multiple constituencies, to include legislators, the press, practitioners, communities, and government officials.” ( Marcus, & Prothrow-Stith, 2001).

Strategic planning

Apart from proper leadership, the organization requires a strategic plan for its success. The developed organization should plan various programs and activities in order to improve the above-mentioned statistics about lifestyle diseases and obesity among US citizens. The strategic plan based on the goals and objectives of the organization should allocate resources and energy to improve the health issues and prevent the lifestyle diseases and obesity. Lifestyle programs should be incorporated to reduce the lifestyle risks through partnerships with schools, organizations, and community groups. Awareness programs of healthy environment and offering low-fat foods by the restaurants help in the community development. Community health programs, environmental health programs, food safety measures, environmental health assessments are some of the strategic plans that should be adopted by the organization. Strategic planning is essential for health care organizations to identify the future health needs. If the changes in the health care industry are not strategically managed, then it has a crucial impact on the nation’s health. Planning helps in allocation of resources, and evaluation of alternative courses of action for improving the health. By assessing and understanding the factors internally and externally, a strategic plan should be integrated. Before developing a strategic plan we should answer the following basic questions:

1. Who are we? What is the current position? Where do we want to go? Developing a vision is the first step in strategic planning. Vision defines the future position of the organization.

Here the vision of the organization is to be a perfect health organization leading to a healthy nation. Developing a mission statement is the second step. The mission statement refers to the activities and responsibilities of the organization. The mission statement incorporates the following activities to reduce obesity and lifestyle diseases.

Build a strong relationship with the local health centers to communicate the aim of the LOCC to the community.
Provide adequate resources to the other health care institutions for improving their capacity to achieve the aim of public health quality of the entire nation.
Build a strong and competent workforce by providing training and development.
Guide for introducing physical activity and weight management in other organizations for the employees
Formulate different committees like finance committee, audit committee, marketing strategy committee etc for easy accomplishment of duties.

(Nacho strategic plan 2007- 2008, 2007). Values, by considering the culture and climate should be carefully defined. The core value is to build honesty and integrity among the public.

2. Where are we now? Here SWOT analysis is done to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and to explore the opportunities by overcoming threats.

A strategic plan must include:

Accountability, or who is to be responsible for what tasks, -A timeline for implementation and completion, -Budget and resource identification. (Strategic planning for health in the community, (n.d)).

Conclusion

One of the studies has shown that U.S adults living in sprawling communities weigh more than others and hence the walking habit has reduced by 40 percent, the chances for increasing the obesity and lifestyle diseases are more. As it is curable, only thing to keep in mind is eating fruits, vegetables, and including physical activities in the daily life i.e. both at home and workplace. Among the 15 activities identified by the Surgeon General, obesity and lifestyle diseases require immediate action to be taken by individuals, families, communities, schools, worksites, healthcare, and organizations. A study by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services reveals that introducing Employee Health and Wellness Programs in organizations has the following benefits: “Reduced healthcare costs by 20 to 55 percent, Reduced short-term sick leave by 6 to 32 percent, Increased productivity by 2 to 52 percent.” (Workplace Health and Wellness, 2008).

Therefore, we can conclude that by introducing nutritious food and physical activity in the daily life of the citizens we can reduce obesity and lifestyle diseases. As some of the organizations have started employee wellness programs there is a hope that the U.S. will be free from this serious issue in a few years.

Reference

Hands, David. (2000). Evidence based organization design in healthcare: The contribution of the health services organization research unit at Brunel university: Introduction. The Nuffield Trust. 14.
For Companies. (2009). Appetite Right.
Lifestyle Diseases and Employee Health. (2005). Health Promotion.
Lifestyle Diseases: Highlights of lifestyle diseases. (2009). The Natural Health Perspective tm. Web.
Marcus, Leonard J., & Prothrow-Stith, Deborah. (2001). Leadership for public health practice: Building collaborative problem solving strategy. Web.
Nacho strategic plan 2007- 2008. (2007).
Overweight and obesity: At a glance: The facts about overweight and obesity. (2007). Office of the Surgeon General.
Overweight and obesity: Introduction. (n.d). CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
Overweight and obesity: State level estimated costs of obesity. (n.d). CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Statistics you need to know: Statistics on lifestyle compliance: Statistics on high blood pressure. (2009). American Heart Association. Web.
Strategic planning for health in the community. (n.d). Supercourse. Web.
Workplace Health and Wellness: Benefits of employee health and wellness programs. (2008). Wellness program blog.
Work place nutrition and physical activity: Healthy eating and physical activity at work. (2005). California Nutrition Network for Healthy, Active Families California a Day for Better Health Campaign Improving the Healthy eating, Physical Activity, and Food Security of Californians. 2.

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